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With the French crown jewels still in the wind after the recent daring daylight robbery at the Louvre, Mark Lee, Matt Wrather and Pete Fenzel turn from the sparkly to the skeletal, to overthink the grand seasonal decorations on display in their urban and suburban communities.

Among its many moments of horror, 2020 saw Home Depot release “Skelly,” a 12-foot plastic lawn skeleton with glowing LCD eyes, to amaze your neighbors and terrify their children. Like or unlike other trends from that year, Skelly and his ilk have advanced in the years since, unceasing. This year, the Depot released an entire “Boo Crew” of additional family for the boney bachelor, and Mark, Matt and Pete have seen not just Skelly, but similarly large and ostentatious Halloween display ramp up in a multi-year grand ornamental Dance of Death.

The Overthinkers tackle the cultural or psychological significance of grand Halloween displays, alongside other over-the-top carnivals of the cursed, such as the continued wearing of the Koh-i-Noor diamond in British coronations. They also muse on Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s 16th century panel painting “The Triumph of Death,” how to consider the changing meaning of “cheapness,” and the provenance of Dolly Parton in the cultural importance of spangles and rhinestones.

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Further Reading

• Meet Skelly’s Boo Crew: The Skeleton Family Expands at the Home Depot
• An Oral History of Home Depot’s 12-Foot Skeleton, by Addy Baird, from Vice
• The Curse of Kohinoor: How the Diamond Affects Its Male Owners, from the Times of India
• The Triumph of Death, by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, at the collection of the Museo del Prado, Madrid, Spain
• Dolly Parton Outfit from 1977 Fort Worth Concert Just Sold. It’s Value May Shock You, by Matt Leclercq, from the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, December 19, 2023